


Annual

by Rainne



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banned Together Bingo 2020, Bucky Barnes and the 21st Century, Gen, Sex Education
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24489907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainne/pseuds/Rainne
Summary: Bucky learns a new thing.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Darcy Lewis, background Darcy/Steve - Relationship, background jane/thor - Relationship
Comments: 23
Kudos: 209
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Annual

Around noon on a Tuesday, Bucky sticks his head into the lab and looks over at Thor and Jane, who are working together at one of the white boards. “Anybody seen Darcy?”

“She had a doctor’s appointment,” Jane reports. “I think she said she was going to get food while she was out, too.”

“A doctor’s appointment?” Bucky repeats, his eyebrows drawing together. “She’s not sick.”

“No, of course not,” Jane replies, distracted. “She’s just gone to the gyno.”

Bucky’s eyes bug out. “Is she… what?”

Thor nudges Jane. “Focus on Bucky,” he says softly.

Jane blinks at the board, then turns to face Bucky. “What?”

“You said she’s at the gynecologist,” Bucky says. “Is she…?”

“Oh, jeez, I shouldn’t have told you that, it’s her business,” Jane replies. “No, she’s not – not as far as I know, anyway – and you should ask her anything else you want to know. I’ve already violated Girl Code as it is.”

Bucky shakes his head. “The ways of women are a mystery,” he says to Thor.

“It was ever thus,” Thor replies, grinning.

Bucky decides to tackle the thing head-on the next time he sees Darcy, which is that very afternoon. He’s wandering, bored, and starts out of the Tower just in time to almost bump into her as she enters through the same door. He slings his arm around her and guides her back outside. “Come have a coffee with me,” he says, and they cross the street to the little cafe where Steve likes to sit and draw sometimes.

“What’s up?” Darcy asks him once they’re seated.

“Nothing, why?” Bucky says, chickening out.

Darcy eyeballs him. “Your voice says nothing, but your face says something. What’s up?”

“I – it’s just – ” Bucky takes a deep breath. “I went looking for you for lunch,” he says. “Jane said you went to the gynecologist, and I was – well, I was wondering if – ”

“No!” Darcy exclaims. “God, no.” She laughs, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear. “I just went in for my annual and my Pill prescription.”

“Pill?” he asks her. “Are you sick?”

“No, my birth control pill.”

Bucky’s face goes flat. “Your what, now?”

Darcy’s mouth drops open. “Nobody’s told you about the Pill?”

“Obviously not,” he replies, a little sharp. “Maybe you could.”

“Oh, sure,” Darcy says, grinning. She waits as the waiter drops their coffees off at the table, then takes a sip and says, “So, back in the sixties or the seventies, I’m not sure which, some enterprising doctor whose name I really ought to know invented hormonal birth control pills.” She reaches into her bag and pulls out a small flat plastic package, popping it open and showing it to him. It’s half-full of pills, most blue and a few yellow. “So, the blue ones have hormones in them and the yellow ones are basically just sugar pills.”

Bucky nods, then says, “So what are they for?”

“Birth control,” Darcy says again. “Basically exactly what it says on the tin. As long as you take it regularly every day, you have about a 99.9% chance of _not_ getting pregnant.”

He sits back in his chair, astonished. “Even without a – you know?”

“A condom?” she replies, grinning. “Yes, even without a condom. Though condoms add an extra layer of protection, and of course birth control pills don’t prevent diseases.”

“Steve can’t catch anything,” Bucky says, defensive of his friend.

“I know that,” Darcy replies. “But he’s also potentially got super-swimmers.”

Bucky blinks. “I… didn’t think of that.”

“I did,” Darcy replies, a wry twist to her lips. “If there’s one thing I _don’t_ need in my life right now, it’s crotch fruit.”

Bucky chokes a little bit. “Crotch fruit, seriously?”

Darcy grins.

He shakes his head. “You’re not right in the head,” he tells her.

“I come by it naturally,” she replies, looking prim.

He shakes his head. “So… does everybody – all the women, I mean – are they all taking this Pill now?”

Darcy shrugs. “A lot of them are,” she says. “I don’t know the statistics. Honestly, I should know more about this than I do. I know it works, and I know that when I show up for my yearly, I get a new script. That’s basically the extent of my knowledge.” She pauses. “Bruce could maybe tell you more about the science of it, if you want to know.”

“Not really.” He pauses, eyeballing her. “Do I want to know about this yearly?”

She eyeballs him back. “Not really,” she replies. “And even if you did, I’ll talk to you about a lot of things, Bucky Barnes, but I will not talk to you about what happens when I have my feet up in the stirrups. If you want to know about gyno exams, you’re gonna have to google it.” She pauses. “Just do it with safe search on; I have a feeling there’s fetish porn out there that you’re not gonna want to see.”

Bucky puts together everything that she just said and shudders. “No, I’ll pass.”

“Smart boy,” she says, reaching across the table and patting his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> For the Banned Together Bingo 2020 prompt "birth control".


End file.
